Well I finally got to that elusive 30,000 word mark! It’s been a tough week NaNo-wise. Full of a lack of motivation to write, full of utter dislike of my novel and where it appears to be going, and full of disdain for myself for letting myself get off track and ultimately behind. 

But I think in the end, you find out who you really are based on how you react to failure. While I haven’t lost yet (there are still 9 days left to write!), I started to consider just giving up. Stopping where I was at. My first draft is terrible anyway. 

But I’d written so many words already! More than most people will ever write in their lifetimes! And dangit I wanted a first draft of something. So I pushed on. 

Finally last night I had a breakthrough. Just over 2,000 words and I finally pushed over the 30,000 word hump. I don’t think it’ll get easier yet. 40k is the home stretch, where you see the light at the end of the tunnel. But I’m pressing forward. 

I’m gonna have to write on our thanksgiving vacation, but that’s okay. I’m just going to try and write as much as I can before 3:00 on Wednesday so that I have less to worry about. 

Write on, fellow writers. November isn’t over yet! 

I was flipping through posts tagged ‘NaNoWriMo’ (as I do at least once a day) yesterday and saw a post where somebody wrote all the things they hated about their novel up to this point. (UPDATE: THIS is the post that I read. Thank you to voeko for reading my version and commenting so I could give credit where it is due!) And considering the wall I’ve appeared to hit as of the last couple of days, I think venting out my writing frustrations will do me well.

So here’s my list of things that I hate about my novel (so far):

1. What the hell do my characters look like? One of my weaknesses in first drafts is my lack of descriptions. Of everything. Characters, setting, EVERYTHING. It’s not so hard to add in in editing, but in the meantime, I feel like I can’t try to put in much of it now either. Because I don’t know what anyone looks like. 
2. I’ve woven this narrative that has taken the turn I didn’t want it to. My MC is going to get caught. And soon, probably before I hit 40k. But I’ll tell ya. I sure don’t want to have to do all this research on criminal trials. Sure I watch a lot of TV where this happens (cough SVU) but that doesn’t mean I can write it correctly! I’m sitting here pondering how I can get around writing anything from the trial without it seeming like a cop out, when I should be writing the scene I have going on right now.
3. There are waaaay too many characters. I did good at keeping a running list when I first started of character’s names. That way I wouldn’t accidentally rename them a thousand words later. But then the list kept growing and growing. There’s MC, her roommate, hallmates, party people, paramedics, and now there’s detectives involved? And let me reiterate that I don’t know what they look like. It’s hard for me to sit and imagine scenes when I can’t picture my characters, let alone remember who all of them are.
4. My MC is pretty snarky and sarcastic, and considering this novel is written in first person POV, that should be pretty evident through the entire thing. But there are so many instances where that isn’t true. Where I’m too focused on dialogue, dialogue, dialogue and not what’s going through her mind (which is just as important). She’s telling us a story from her point of view. She’s bound to have an internal opinion of just about everything. And I realize there are places where that shouldn’t be invoked, and that’s fine! But there are so many places it should be, but isn’t.
5. Last but not least: WHY IS THERE SO MUCH DIALOGUE. Most of my characterization is done through dialogue (obviously because there’s no descriptions otherwise HAHA ). But in my head I start envisioning this conversation, and because my mind runs faster than my fingers, I just have to get the conversation down. But who needs the action going on around it? Who needs scene descriptions, or reactions, or casual hair flipping and head scratching? Obviously no one reading this draft of my novel, that’s for sure. I really need another straight up action scene. But how do I do that without throwing my story off the deep end? Because I mean I’ve written a novel where I needed words so there was an explosion and one character almost died. It was in your face ACTION and it was AWESOME. But I don’t have room in this novel for that. I guess if I get desperate for the word count though…

Okay. I think I have vented enough for the day. Time to get writing so I keep up my everyday streak of not missing the word count.

What’s something you hate about your novel? Share below! And KEEP WRITING.

Today is actually day 6, but I wanted to get a post in early (before I’ve actually sat down to write any more).

Last night I crossed over the 20% mark! I went to bed right around midnight with my word count sitting at 11,150. Here’s my progress bar to prove it:

I’m doing well so far keeping ahead of schedule. Trying to keep that momentum going as long as possible until I hit the inevitable wall. Plus I’ll be travelling/out of town for the last six days of November so it’d be nice to finish early.

I think if I sit down and really think about it, I’m finally at a point that I can write a synopsis for the darn thing! So hopefully I’ll be able to share that in the next couple of days. And then maybe I can finally come up with a darn title!

This has come along pretty well so far. Most of my writing has been done during word wars, not because I have to force myself to write the story itself. Rather I rely so much on them because I have to motivate myself to write period. I’m so out of practice with writing constantly. I think I just go back to college in my head and having to sit and write papers constantly. Ick. Then I remind myself that this is all for fun. But I still need motivation, so we do word wars. It’s working for me so far!

What bothers me most about this draft is how bare bones it is. I’ve never been great at including very much description – of characters, of situations, locations, etc. As it stands, it’s a lot of dialogue. But I think that’s what will make editing fun is going in and adding more! I’m already kind of looking forward to reading this when it’s over – just so I can keep adding to it.

Hopefully I can keep my momentum going. But I’m preparing myself for the wall I just might hit.

How’s your word count doing? It’s still early if you’re behind! Happy writing!